- Born
- Died
- Birth nameNobu Atsumi
- Lovely, demure actress Nobu McCarthy, born Nobu Atsumi in Ottawa Canada, was raised in Japan and studied ballet. A modeling career eventually led to her winning the "Miss Tokyo" beauty title. She married a US serviceman and returned to the States in 1955. Discovered by a talent agent, she made a gentle, touching impression in such films as The Geisha Boy (1958) alongside a slapstick Jerry Lewis, the comedy Wake Me When It's Over (1960) with Dick Shawn and Ernie Kovacs, and Love with the Proper Stranger (1963) starring Steve McQueen and Natalie Wood. She also graced episodic TV with a number of guest spots. Most appreciated as an unassuming girl-next-door type, she more or less shied away from her career following a painful divorce, but returned to acting in 1971 as a member of the East West Players, a small L.A.-based theater group. She eventually became their artistic director from 1989 to 1993. She died at age 67 in 2002 of an aneurysm while on film location in Brazil for the movie Gaijin: Ama-me Como Sou (2005).
- IMDb mini biography by: Gary Brumburgh / gr-home@pacbell.net
- SpousesWilliam Jeffrey Cuthbert(March 20, 1977 - October 21, 1997) (his death)David Howard McCarthy(December 12, 1955 - September 1971) (divorced, 2 children)
- ChildrenMarlonSerena
- Twice played the love interest of Pat Morita: in Arnold's Wedding (1976) and The Karate Kid Part II (1986).
- Won Miss Tokyo beauty pageant.
- In her later years she had arthritis that sometimes made her move in a way that made her look older than she was.
- She is survived by two children from her first marriage, Marlon of Monrovia and Serena of Northern California and three brothers.
- Her father was a secretary to the Japanese ambassador to Canada, in Ottawa., when she was born there.
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